Project Mend-A-House Featured at Sterling Women Manassas Event

Meet Jennifer Schock-Bolles, Executive Director at Project Mend-A-House, a former Sterling Women Manassas Nonprofit of the Month.

The nonprofit organization provides free home repairs to low-income residents of Prince William County, Manassas City and Manassas Park, installing ramps and grab bars and offering free, durable medical equipment like hospital beds, wheelchairs, stair climbers and FreedomAlert medical alert devices. Schock-Bolles says their clients are often the most vulnerable in the community: 75 percent are seniors, 77 percent are women, 69 percent of which are the head of their households, and 52 percent have a disability.

Schock-Bolles recounts, “There are so many success stories, but the ones that touch me the most are those that illustrate the great impact that we can have on our client’s lives. Ms. Stella has been a client for close to two years. In December of 2013, she was in a horrific auto accident, which turned her from a healthy and active retiree to a frail, mobility impaired shut-in. In addition to the myriad of home repairs that we have provided, we have also given her a ramp so that she can now safely and easily leave her home and in July of last year, she was able to use our FreedomAlert to summon 911 when she began bleeding internally, literally saving her life. To show her thanks, Stella invited the entire PMAH staff over for tea. A large part of our service to our clients is provided when they realize there is someone who cares, someone they can talk to and call upon when they need help.

“We offer freedom to the homebound person in a wheelchair by providing a ramp and security to the unstable senior who is afraid to take a bath for fear of falling,” Schock-Bolles says. “We restore the dignity and pride of a low-income homeowner who has to choose between putting food on the table or fixing that broken window.”

Services are free for households that make less than 50 percent of the area median income for Prince William County. This means a single person would make less than $37,450 per year, a family of four less than $53,500 per year. Schock-Bolles says that 65 percent of their clients make less than 30 percent of the area median income.

“Once a client has qualified for services, they can request assistance as many times as they need in the year they are qualified and re-qualify year after year,” she says. “PMAH is the only home repair organization that offers completely free services and also allows clients to apply more than one time a year.”

Schock-Bolles says that most of their clients are not comfortable or knowledgeable about home repairs and that many are unable to do repairs themselves due to lack of ability or funds. This makes them easy targets for unscrupulous contractors or handymen. Project Mend-A-House helps not only with accessibility and safety issues, but also helps maintain clients’ homes. She says this assists in preventing more expensive fixes in the future and bolsters community property values.

Project Mend-A-House has been helping people in so many ways for 30 years, and Schock-Bolles looks forward to the next thirty. She wants people to know that they are a local nonprofit serving the local community, not part of a larger national organization. She says “We truly are neighbors helping neighbors!”

Schock-Bolles first became involved with Sterling Women back in 2008 when she began attending the luncheon, but she changed jobs and was unable to attend for a couple years. She was very excited to see Sterling Women expand in Prince William County so that she can participate again.

For more information on Project Mend-A-House, visit www.pmahweb.org.

Sterling Women Manassas is a local network of professionals committed to encouraging, supporting, inspiring and strengthening one another. Through events and monthly meetings, Sterling Women Manassas showcases and celebrates exceptional women in the Prince William Area. Register now for next month’s program featuring Dalena Kanouse, President and Chief Executive Officer of Management and Training Consultants, Inc., (MTCI).